This list of qualifications might seem difficult to fulfill even in the multitalented world of New York. But the Atlantic Theater Company -- apparently without ads -- has found just such a cast among the alumni of its own acting school. Its 75-minute Atlantic for Kids production of ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' is as inspired an adaptation of a children's classic as I've ever seen.

Anyone who has read the original knows that Lewis Carroll's convoluted rhymes and incessant puns can be daunting for the young -- a little like trying to swim through the deep pool that Alice weeps. But Bridgette Dunlap, the playwright and director, and her collaborators -- including the costume designer Katja Andreiev, the prop designer Emily French and the artist Manny Silva -- have created so much stunning visual comedy that children don't need to understand every word. And those who do will find their experience only enriched by the nonstop antics onstage.

When this Alice becomes small, for instance, she whips out a blond doll and becomes a superego scolding her diminutive self. Played by Kathryn Ekblad as more of an American tomboy in pants than as a little British girl in a pinafore, she has the audience riveted from the moment she somersaults and cartwheels into Wonderland to the second she kickboxes her way out of it.

Alice's fellows are just as engaging, whether sock puppets, marionettes or inventively transformed humans. (Imagine creating a pigeon by attaching a fake bird's head to an actress's hat with a Slinky.) Sometimes the surprises are aural, too, as when techno or classical music suddenly blares, or the Duchess jolts theatergoers by exhorting them, ''Always save your files to disks.''

Not that anyone needs waking up. With everything from cloth lobsters to a cream pie flying through the air, this is a production not even the Dormouse could snooze through.

The time has come to spend part of your Sunday watching a man in a monkey suit make everyone laugh. But if you're scratching your head because Chris Rock presided over the Oscars two weeks ago, I'm not talking about a guy in a tuxedo. I mean one in a real monkey suit.

He's Christopher Trice, who plays the title character in ''Curious George,'' Theaterworks/USA's new adaptation of Margret and H.A. Rey's beloved 1940's series of children's books about a wily little monkey. This isn't a typical Theaterworks production: it's not a musical, and the lead doesn't talk, much less sing. But thanks to Mr. Trice's joyful willingness to make a monkey of himself, children are captivated, especially when he communicates by hilarious gestures and facial expressions or a well-aimed raspberry.

Jeremy Dobrish, who wrote and directed the show, has given the Reys' books a gentle nudge into the 21st century. The Man in the Yellow Hat, who seems to have leaped right off the page in the lanky body of Stewart Carrico, is not George's captor so much as his earnest protector and friend. As for the zoo, it's no longer portrayed as a monkey's ideal home. And when the mayor (Clifford Endo Gulibert), who sounds suspiciously like Bill Clinton, visits, he and George do a hip-hop routine.

The script, which cleverly interweaves plot lines from several of the books, is filled with sight gags, including the only stage fight I've ever seen in which the weapons are a wooden spoon and a squeegee. The show also ends with a tour de force: a silent high-speed re-enactment of the entire play for a director making a biopic about George. In this case, both the one-hour version and the three-minute one are delightful.

''Curious George,'' Sunday and March 20 at 2 p.m. at the Auditorium at Equitable Tower, 787 Seventh Avenue, at 52nd Street, Manhattan, (212)627-7373. Tickets: $25, or $18 when buying any 10 in the season.

Eggs Available, Any Style

Eggs will be the focus of many family activities this month. But the ones to be displayed on Staten Island on Sunday won't show up in any child's Easter basket -- or omelet.

These will probably include ostrich eggs, emu eggs, shark eggs, frogs' eggs, insect eggs and many others, all part of the Staten Island Zoo's Eggstravaganza. ''We set up tables with what we call biofacts,'' said Ella Viola, the zoo's director of education. These are ''pieces of eggs or sometimes bones or feathers or skins,'' she said, which children can handle.

Ordinary hens' eggs will play a role, too. ''Usually people do egg hunts, but we made another game -- an egg relay race,'' Ms. Viola said. Each child will use a spoon to carry a hard-boiled egg to the next person on the team. The winners are those whose egg finishes without going the way of Humpty Dumpty.

In a nod to Easter, children can decorate plastic eggs, and the youngest can create nests of chicks from paper cups and pompons. If spring is also hatching, the entire event will be held outdoors.